Children of Bodom frontman Alexi Laiho was the guest on Full Metal Jackie’s radio show this past weekend. Laiho spoke about the band's 'Halo of Blood Over North America' tour, his recent work with Marty Friedman and Megadeth's influence on his band and more. If you missed Jackie’s show, here’s her full interview with Children of Bodom's Alexi Laiho.

It’s Full Metal Jackie bringing you two full hours of metal weekly. On the show with us, all the way from Finland this evening, we've got the one and only Alexi Laiho from Children of Bodom. How are you doing Alexi?

I'm doing. I just got a iPhone like an hour ago, so I'm actually feeling very frustrated.

You got what an hour ago?

An iPhone

Oh, no. (Laughs) Well, that's exciting.

Yeah, it's giving me so much grief.

It will be frustrating for a while, but then you'll grow to love it.

I don't know. I almost threw the thing out the freaking window, but I figured I'd let you call me first.

Aww, thank you. I appreciate that. Children of Bodom is going to be touring the U.S. again starting in February for the 'Halo of Blood Over North America' tour, this time with Death Angel and Tyr. Pretty broad cross-section of metal bands. Alexi, how important is it to you to expose fans to the diversity of metal?

Well, I think it's always important. It's good to have something for everybody. And it's supposed to be a package, because it's a long evening of metal. And all the bands are important. All the bands should actually be good. So I think, to me, it sounds like a good package.

Right. Like if you were not in the band and you were just a metal fan, you would think that this was a cool package and you would want to see it.

Absolutely, yes. I would have to see it. I'm going to go buy my ticket right now!

(Laughing) You're going to go buy your ticket right now. And Alexi, you're going to be still supporting 'Halo of Blood' on this upcoming tour. Now that you've been touring the album for a while and playing some of the songs live, do you hear the album differently?

Not really, I actually haven't heard the damn thing in a while but the one thing I have noticed is that, since being out since June, I guess, that people definitely recognize the new songs. Like, it was different when we started doing festivals in June, the crowd was like mellower. I don't know, they were not that into it. But now, they're actually going crazy for the new songs which is really cool.

Would you say that you feed off the crowd during your performance? Because it's a pretty high energy performance that you give.

Yeah, absolutely! I mean it's a two-way street.

Alexi, you're one of the guest musicians on Marty Freidman's new album, 'Inferno.' How would your style in metal, as a whole, be different without Marty's influence?

It would be different for sure because he’s there in Megadeth, which was very influential for me. The core playing and songwriting and stuff. You know, it's just, like 'Rust in Peace,' and stuff like that. 'Rust in Peace' is one of my favorite albums ever so he definitely has been a big influence for me. So, it was really cool when he asked me to do a song for his album.

And did you have a good time doing it?

I did, yeah. It's just that the schedule was pretty f---ed up because I basically only had a couple days to record it and I only had a week to write it because I had to leave on the tour. So, it was pretty hectic but it was cool though. I actually had fun. It was just refreshing to do something else from Children of Bodom.

Between Children of Bodom and all your other projects and guest appearances, it's obvious you love making music with different musicians. Who's the No. 1 musician you someday hope to work with?

Oh man, that was a tough question. It would be awesome to do a song with Jack Wilder or it would be awesome, I mean I always wanted to write a song for Sebastian Bach. I've been bugging him about it. Every time I see him, I'm like, 'Dude when are you going to let me write a new song for you?' So we'll see one day.

That would be an amazing collaboration by the way. I'm just saying.

Oh yeah, it would be pretty cool.

Again the 'Halo of Blood Over North America Tour' with Children of Bodom, Death Angel, and Tyr starts in February. Really looking forward to this tour. And Alexi, thanks for taking the time out from Finland to talk to us on the phone. I would imagine, it's really f---ing cold right now?

It's getting there, yeah.

(Laughs) Well what is it that you do on your off time in Finland? I've never been so I have no idea what goes on in Finland.

Well, the first thing I did was I went off with my friends and got drunk and then I slept for two days in a row. And after that, I was just kind of like what the hell's going on now? I'm still trying to figure it out.

Well, I really appreciate you taking the time to be on the show, and looking forward to this tour. So once again, thanks so much Alexi.

This coming weekend, Full Metal Jackie will welcome Black Label Society's Zakk Wylde on her show. Full Metal Jackie can be heard on radio stations around the country — for a full list of stations, go to fullmetaljackieradio.com.